


Unexpected

by bonesmctightass



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Angry Southern Doctoring, Blood and Violence, Gen, Happy Ending, Internal Monologue, No Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-13 14:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7980589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonesmctightass/pseuds/bonesmctightass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Explore the planet, Jim said. It'll be fun, Jim said. Worst. Shore leave. Ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt: It was supposed to be a shore leave with no responsibilities or duties, but Leonard should've known better. Only Jim could've persuaded him and Spock to go explore an uninhabited planet, encounter a hostile native species and get almost torn apart (unconcious) - Spock eliminated the threat, but gt hurt himself. Bones isn't CMO just for show, though, he figures it out, and if he has an internal monoloque (swearing), who can blame him?

_“Damn it, Jim, he’s dying. Just shut up and let me work!_ _Quit that blasted hovering! Why don’t you make yourself useful and go lay down like I told you to? You’re not in a position to be ordering me about while you’re barely alive yourself!”_

* * *

 

At first, this shore leave was turning out to be quite an enjoyable experience. Leonard was justifiably apprehensive when Jim had suggested beaming down to an uninhabited planet. An absence of a native species did not mean that there was not man-eating flora or fauna thriving down below. Jim was, as usual, particularly relentless in his undignified begging. Eventually Leonard and Spock relented, deciding it best to indulge their foolhardy captain.  

After an initial sweep of the planet’s surface, Spock declared, “No life forms detected. The planet is indeed uninhabited. Security officers will not be necessary for our exploration.”

They went planetside and meandered about without incident. Leonard was fascinated by the unusual insects he had encountered while Spock seemed occupied with the unfamiliar plant life.

“Fascinating. This species of flower is very similar to a variety that grows naturally on Vulcan. I would very much like to take a sample before our return to the ship.”

“If he gets to take something, than I want to beam up one of these little critters.” Leonard was fully intent on keeping one for a pet. Life aboard a starship invariably became lonely. The little insect was incapable of speech, which was also a plus. _I bet this little guy would be way better company than the Hobgoblin, and he won’t sass me._

“Yes, yes, very well gentleman.” Jim replied dismissively. He was much more interested in a series of indentations carved into the trunk of a tree. “Spock, what d’you suppose made these impressions? They don’t seem to be natural at all.”

Spock dropped his tricorder and moved over to Jim’s side. “These do appear to be manmade, Captain. Perhaps by some sort of spear or primitive dagger. The markings are not clean enough to have been made by modern weaponry.”

“Now wait a minute, Spock. I thought you said this planet was uninhabited.” Leonard bristled. He did not want to be anywhere near a hostile alien colony. He was a healer, not a fighter. _Hand to hand combat is not in my job description._

“I assure you, Doctor, sensors indicated no life forms aside from the animals we have already encountered. The chances of meeting a native species are—”

Just as Spock was undoubtedly going to rattle off a statistic, the three officers suddenly found themselves surrounded by a small group of odd looking creatures. They were the approximately the size of an average adult male human, which was terrifying on its own, all things considered. They bared a striking resemblance to Terran praying mantis. Many legs, many eyes, long feelers atop their heads. Their arms and mouths were equipped with razor sharp pincers. They looked absolutely menacing, and they were ready to attack.

“That explains why the scanners didn’t register them as life forms.” Jim commented helpfully. “We mean you no harm. I am Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Our mission here is simply to explore and—“

The natives attacked before Jim was able to finish his sentence. Everything was a blur. Their best option would have been to run, but these creatures were faster. Leonard’s vision was clouded with smatterings of green and red. He registered the sound of Spock yelling. He was running, drawing the enemies towards him and away from them. “Protect the Captain!” He had shouted. Leonard‘s brain suddenly kicked into high gear and his medical instincts took over. Hooking his arms under Jim’s shoulders, Leonard carried them to the safety of a nearby cave hollowed into the base of a rocky mountain.

Jim’s chest had a sizeable gash and was hemorrhaging blood. The viscous fluid soaked through his gold shirt, poured onto the dirt ground and stained Leonard’s arms. He had to work fast if he was going to save the Captain’s life. _Stay with me, Jim. Don’t you dare close your eyes, you hear? You stay focused on me, now. That’s it._ He tore at the fabric of the Command uniform and pressed it to the wound to stifle the bleeding. _Come on, now. You’ve been through way worse than this. Ain’t nothin’ but a glorified papercut you got there. You’re gonna be all right._

Leonard thanked every deity in existence that he’d thought to bring his medkit along on the trip. He carefully peeled away the shirt and moved his dermal regenerator along the torn edges of Jim’s skin. This was only a temporary fix but it would do until he could get the man back to sickbay. There was undoubtedly internal bleeding and other damage beyond the laceration. “There we go. You’ll have some scarring but you’ll live.”

Jim reached up and gripped Leonard’s shoulder tightly. “What would I do without you, Bones?”

“Die a lonely, agonizing death. Now you better remember why you brought me aboard that ship. I’m not just there to look pretty, you know.” Leonard grinned and patted Jim’s chest. “Now you stay put while I go find Spock. I swear on your chair, Jim, if you’re not layin’ down right here when I get back I’ll hypo you into next Tuesday!” _Who am I kidding. This kid couldn’t sit still if his life depended on it. Oh, poor choice of words. Too soon, too soon._

He took one last look into the cave before setting off to find the first officer. If it weren’t for Spock’s act of bravery, they would all probably be dead. But that didn’t mean Leonard wasn’t angry for taking the brunt of the attack. He hoped that the Vulcan was still alive out there.

When Leonard finally found him, there were only two of the hideous creatures in sight. They lay dead in a heap near Spock, who was unconsciously slumped against a tree. He was badly wounded. It was a wonder how he wasn’t dead. “Damn it, Spock, why do you always have to go and be a hero?” He muttered, more or less to himself. Leonard slung one of Spock’s arms over his shoulder and hauled him over to their hiding spot.

Predictably, Jim was nervously pacing about when he returned with their fallen friend. “Bones! Is he alive? You’ve got to do something! You’ve got to save him, Bones!”

“Well what in blazes do you think I’m gonna do?” He spat, laying Spock along the ground. The jaws of the creature had latched onto the base of Spock’s neck, no doubt in an attempt to decapitate him. His stomach had dealt heavy damage from the onslaught of steely appendages. _Don’t panic. The last thing you need to do is panic. Check for a pulse. Sweet Jesus, it’s faint but it’s there. He’ll make it through this alive if it’s the last thing I do_.    

It was considerably more difficult to do his job with Jim yelling in his ear and crowding into his space. Once threatened with a hypo the Captain finally backed down and slinked to a spot where he could rest his body and still see what Leonard was doing. _Explore the planet. What a fine idea. Getting elbow deep in a Vulcan’s stomach is exactly how I wanted to spend my shore leave. This is just fucking perfect! Damn it, man, you had better not die on me or I swear—_

Leonard did what he could with the tools that he had, but Spock was not going to hang on much longer if they didn’t return to the ship. “Jim, I’ve done everything I can do here. I’ve got to get him to sickbay. We’ve got to get back aboard the ship!” Communicators. Where had their communicators gone? They must have dropped them during the attack. “Jim. Jim, come here. I need your help. I need you to press his shirt into this wound to stop the bleeding. A dermal won’t be enough to fix it. Just make sure he doesn’t bleed out while I’m gone.”

“Where the hell are you going?” Jim asked incredulously as he got into position and did as instructed.

“To get us off this pesky planet.”

The communicator was easier to find than Leonard thought. It was on the ground along the path he dragged Jim’s body, having gotten unclipped from his belt along the way. _Well that’s miraculous. With the way this day is going I was sure I would have to go find one of those monsters and shove my arm in its mouth to get the damn thing from its stomach._

In less than five minutes, the landing party was beamed back aboard the Enterprise and rushed to the safety of sickbay. Doctor M’Benga patched up Jim while Leonard raced against the clock to save Spock’s life. Leonard had never transfused so much blood in his career. His hands were on auto-pilot while he stared intently at the life support systems. Slowly but surely, they were steadily rising. _That’s it. Come back to us, you green-blooded bastard. You’re not dying today. Not on my watch. Don’t you even think about going into the pretty white light._

After several hours of tireless work, Spock had finally opened his eyes. The light of the sickbay burned a little too brightly, but he fought to keep them open.

Leonard quickly sidled up to the edge of the biobed. “Welcome back, Mister Spock. Glad you could finally join us.” He was holding in a sigh of relief that he refused to let out.

Nurse Chapel was hovering by the bed as soon as she’d heard the good news. “Doctor, the Captain is climbing the walls out there. If the Commander is stable, I strongly suggest we let him in.” _That is so typical. He better not be scaring all of my patients._

“Fine, fine. Send him in.”

Jim was on Spock like fur on a Tribble. “Glad to see you’re still here, Spock.” The Captain was beaming, radiating warmth now that his best officer and best friend was alive and well. He set a hand on Spock’s shoulder and squeezed.

“My apologies, Captain. I must admit it was slightly overzealous of me to think I could escape with minimal damage while being pursued by those creatures.” Spock was looking just about as sheepish as a Vulcan was capable.

“ _Slightly?_ You’re lucky they didn’t tear you to pieces! Scratch that, they did tear you to pieces. I had to stitch all your parts back together again. Damn it, you Hobgoblin, I’m a doctor, not a seamstress!”

“Are you quite sure? I think you’ve done a fine job of ‘sewing me back together’. Perhaps you’ve found a new calling.” 

The sound of Jim’s laughter filling the sickbay completely drowned out the bickering of his two favorite people. Truth be told, Leonard wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
